Well howdy buckaroos,
Ahh yes. It's that time again. A time where I'm hanging out in a coffee shop and just can't take in more Japanese vocab (4 words is my per hour limit...I'll get there someday). Well what better a time than when relentlessly studying vocab to drop a little note about vocab fun and adventures.
Nah. No fun and no adventures. Sorry to disappoint, but I -have- been constantly working on my rep in Japan as a bumbling idiot. Oh I know! That it is surprising for most of you to learn that I could so much as utter an out of context word or much less one of ambiguous meaning, but it happens to me right here in Japan. Must be something in the water. But before I write a well and strongly worded Japanese letter to all municipal water services in Japan, I'm gonna tell you just a folly or two of the Japanese language which causes even the best to fall down sometimes. And we're off to the races.
No it's not been an easy ascension to greatness. That is, how can it be when thank you and good morning seem so much the same??? No no no. You see, when you're making a language, just like the between 2 and 4 people made the modern Japanese language in just under 3 hours about 1 million years ago, you can't just make two of the most basic introductory words sound almost the same. In Japanese:
Good morning: Oh ha yo go zai mas....say it fast....ohayogozaimas.....say it 5 times fast..no don't
Thank you: A di ga toe go zai mas....say it fast...adigatogozaimas......yeah
I mean sure, the first parts are completely different, but the second half of the word is just the same. Well that's actually cause they're both two words and the second word is the same word which means "there is" or "I have" or "blah blah blah exists." Basically for thank you you're saying "there is thanks" or "I have thanks" or "thanks exists," whichever you think sounds the most natural. I personally think "thanks exists" is the most natural because I say that all the time in English. Regardless, good morning is kinda the same....except with early, as my perfect understanding goes.....thus.....for good morning you're saying "there is early" or "I have early" or "early exists." This time I personally like "I have early." Anyways that's neither here nor there. The second half of the ding dong phrase is the same and that makes it hard if you're a really cool foreigner who is trying to throw out Japanese off the cuff like he is Japanese himself.
And ohh did I prove myself when I got here. I distinctly remember arriving in my teachers office on the first few days of teaching and someone hitting me with a good morning and I'd hit back with a thank you. But it didn't stop there.
But let's stop there for a second. It's time for an aside. Japan, folks, is not a morning country. This is quite apparent when thinking about some greetings in Japan that in spite of one popular image of Japan as being quite straight laced, Japan is really not a morning country. Think of your three basic greetings for the day:
Hello: Kon nichi wa.....konnichiwa
Good evening: Kon ban wa....konbanwa
Good morning: Oh ha yo go zai mas.....ohayogozaimas
You already got one of those, so this is review, and fluency is that much closer for the freaks and geeks. Just please don't confuse the words, amateurs. Anywho, hello, or good day, basically, in Japanese, translates very simply to "today" or "this day" or "about today." Good evening translates the same, "tonight" or "this night" or "about tonight." Then you have good morning, see the difference? As I said earlier...it means "there is early." And how apparent does it become that waking up early is not a Japanese thing when basically hello is "This day," good evening is "This night" and good morning is "It's f***ing early." The greetings are not all around positive in the first place but boy does good morning really drive it home.
But ya know what, for a country that never accepted daylight savings time, I can kinda understand where those between 2 and 4 people were coming from on this one. Because this country doesn't accept this lovely technology we call daylight savings time, the sun quickly becomes a rude aspect of every morning that leaves you begging for coffee or something to break. In the summer, you're talkin about the sun coming up in the range of 430am. And this sun isn't like the Finnish sun which comes up in a calmer manner, no it's boom and it's there! DarkJUST KIDDING LIGHT. And for some reason a beam always seems to make it straight into your eye. It's not oh wow I'm sleepy this room sure did light fast; it's more like retreat the sun is attacking!! And you know your first thought when you wake up? Ohayogozaimas.
So anyways when you mix any small complication in with this language word confusion, you get a circus. Me and my buddy used to do a little unserious Japanese class every Wednesday, then try to go out to a bar or two after to try and get to know some locals and practice our Japanese. Problem is, if you don't know how to read, like your illiterate heroes, then it becomes pretty difficult to figure out what kind of institution you're walking yourself into. What's worse, Japanese people are super shy, so even if the place is itself conducting a wholesome business, the windows and doors still have curtains over transparent or translucent areas of the building...or there's just no windows. Either way, we couldn't get the feel for a place until we walked in. This certainly lead to mixed results from employees, patrons and owners, generally the reaction being "Holy s*** it's the ********** apocalypse." I'm convinced that most of them had never seen any of those with complexions as pale as our own. Japanese folks are completely thrown off by mundane things far more than earthquakes. But that's for another day. Either way, early on we were looking for a normal everyday bar....well those are not so common in the countryside we came to learn, and trying to do your best to hit closest to the mark can put you in places where you're not appreciated for your inner person.
Well we walked into one of those places first thing, after Japanese class, and I still don't know exactly what this place was. I think it was a kind of snack bar, which is generally a place staffed by young women which serves old men snacks and alcohol. Anyways this bar-looking place was mostly empty at 10pm, about when we walked in. We came in the door, there's a girl behind the counter and two girls sitting at a short booth beside the door - both of which immediately locked their eyes on us. The lady behind the counter said something we didn't understand and we said in Japanese something like "uh....food? drinks?" It was at that point the lady behind the bar walked over to us and said something...to which we said "is there food? can we drink?" then she said something else which was followed by a "......" At this point it was like okay.....I have no clue what this place is but we did something wrong. I immediately try to say okay well we'll go somewhere else or something to that tune since I super sucked it was the first or so month in Japan. She said something else, again that we didn't understand and I decided to just cut our losses and politely leave whatever just happened. I tried to say thank you, but in my nervous, turned around confusion I said "it's f***ing early," bowed, and left. It wasn't until about ten minutes later that my friend and I were talking and I realized, "did I just say good morning and leave?"
Well it's about that time freaks and geeks. It's been a hard fought blogging experience, and I know you must be tired. So I'll hit you with a good night, which rings of a more positive tone in Japanese...something like "the honored rest," "please politely rest," or just simply "rest." So to all of you out there - Oyasumi!
Ahh yes. It's that time again. A time where I'm hanging out in a coffee shop and just can't take in more Japanese vocab (4 words is my per hour limit...I'll get there someday). Well what better a time than when relentlessly studying vocab to drop a little note about vocab fun and adventures.
Nah. No fun and no adventures. Sorry to disappoint, but I -have- been constantly working on my rep in Japan as a bumbling idiot. Oh I know! That it is surprising for most of you to learn that I could so much as utter an out of context word or much less one of ambiguous meaning, but it happens to me right here in Japan. Must be something in the water. But before I write a well and strongly worded Japanese letter to all municipal water services in Japan, I'm gonna tell you just a folly or two of the Japanese language which causes even the best to fall down sometimes. And we're off to the races.
No it's not been an easy ascension to greatness. That is, how can it be when thank you and good morning seem so much the same??? No no no. You see, when you're making a language, just like the between 2 and 4 people made the modern Japanese language in just under 3 hours about 1 million years ago, you can't just make two of the most basic introductory words sound almost the same. In Japanese:
Good morning: Oh ha yo go zai mas....say it fast....ohayogozaimas.....say it 5 times fast..no don't
Thank you: A di ga toe go zai mas....say it fast...adigatogozaimas......yeah
I mean sure, the first parts are completely different, but the second half of the word is just the same. Well that's actually cause they're both two words and the second word is the same word which means "there is" or "I have" or "blah blah blah exists." Basically for thank you you're saying "there is thanks" or "I have thanks" or "thanks exists," whichever you think sounds the most natural. I personally think "thanks exists" is the most natural because I say that all the time in English. Regardless, good morning is kinda the same....except with early, as my perfect understanding goes.....thus.....for good morning you're saying "there is early" or "I have early" or "early exists." This time I personally like "I have early." Anyways that's neither here nor there. The second half of the ding dong phrase is the same and that makes it hard if you're a really cool foreigner who is trying to throw out Japanese off the cuff like he is Japanese himself.
And ohh did I prove myself when I got here. I distinctly remember arriving in my teachers office on the first few days of teaching and someone hitting me with a good morning and I'd hit back with a thank you. But it didn't stop there.
But let's stop there for a second. It's time for an aside. Japan, folks, is not a morning country. This is quite apparent when thinking about some greetings in Japan that in spite of one popular image of Japan as being quite straight laced, Japan is really not a morning country. Think of your three basic greetings for the day:
Hello: Kon nichi wa.....konnichiwa
Good evening: Kon ban wa....konbanwa
Good morning: Oh ha yo go zai mas.....ohayogozaimas
You already got one of those, so this is review, and fluency is that much closer for the freaks and geeks. Just please don't confuse the words, amateurs. Anywho, hello, or good day, basically, in Japanese, translates very simply to "today" or "this day" or "about today." Good evening translates the same, "tonight" or "this night" or "about tonight." Then you have good morning, see the difference? As I said earlier...it means "there is early." And how apparent does it become that waking up early is not a Japanese thing when basically hello is "This day," good evening is "This night" and good morning is "It's f***ing early." The greetings are not all around positive in the first place but boy does good morning really drive it home.
But ya know what, for a country that never accepted daylight savings time, I can kinda understand where those between 2 and 4 people were coming from on this one. Because this country doesn't accept this lovely technology we call daylight savings time, the sun quickly becomes a rude aspect of every morning that leaves you begging for coffee or something to break. In the summer, you're talkin about the sun coming up in the range of 430am. And this sun isn't like the Finnish sun which comes up in a calmer manner, no it's boom and it's there! DarkJUST KIDDING LIGHT. And for some reason a beam always seems to make it straight into your eye. It's not oh wow I'm sleepy this room sure did light fast; it's more like retreat the sun is attacking!! And you know your first thought when you wake up? Ohayogozaimas.
So anyways when you mix any small complication in with this language word confusion, you get a circus. Me and my buddy used to do a little unserious Japanese class every Wednesday, then try to go out to a bar or two after to try and get to know some locals and practice our Japanese. Problem is, if you don't know how to read, like your illiterate heroes, then it becomes pretty difficult to figure out what kind of institution you're walking yourself into. What's worse, Japanese people are super shy, so even if the place is itself conducting a wholesome business, the windows and doors still have curtains over transparent or translucent areas of the building...or there's just no windows. Either way, we couldn't get the feel for a place until we walked in. This certainly lead to mixed results from employees, patrons and owners, generally the reaction being "Holy s*** it's the ********** apocalypse." I'm convinced that most of them had never seen any of those with complexions as pale as our own. Japanese folks are completely thrown off by mundane things far more than earthquakes. But that's for another day. Either way, early on we were looking for a normal everyday bar....well those are not so common in the countryside we came to learn, and trying to do your best to hit closest to the mark can put you in places where you're not appreciated for your inner person.
Well we walked into one of those places first thing, after Japanese class, and I still don't know exactly what this place was. I think it was a kind of snack bar, which is generally a place staffed by young women which serves old men snacks and alcohol. Anyways this bar-looking place was mostly empty at 10pm, about when we walked in. We came in the door, there's a girl behind the counter and two girls sitting at a short booth beside the door - both of which immediately locked their eyes on us. The lady behind the counter said something we didn't understand and we said in Japanese something like "uh....food? drinks?" It was at that point the lady behind the bar walked over to us and said something...to which we said "is there food? can we drink?" then she said something else which was followed by a "......" At this point it was like okay.....I have no clue what this place is but we did something wrong. I immediately try to say okay well we'll go somewhere else or something to that tune since I super sucked it was the first or so month in Japan. She said something else, again that we didn't understand and I decided to just cut our losses and politely leave whatever just happened. I tried to say thank you, but in my nervous, turned around confusion I said "it's f***ing early," bowed, and left. It wasn't until about ten minutes later that my friend and I were talking and I realized, "did I just say good morning and leave?"
Well it's about that time freaks and geeks. It's been a hard fought blogging experience, and I know you must be tired. So I'll hit you with a good night, which rings of a more positive tone in Japanese...something like "the honored rest," "please politely rest," or just simply "rest." So to all of you out there - Oyasumi!
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